


Hungry, Hungry Peter

by Purple_ducky00



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Irondad & Spiderson, Starvation, kind of, lack of food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25215796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_ducky00/pseuds/Purple_ducky00
Summary: Peter loves hanging out at the Tower, but no one seems to notice he needs more food than a normal teenage boy. Peter doesn't want to say anything because he doesn't want Tony to have to worry about yet another thing. How long can he go on before someone notices?
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 213
Collections: The Friendly Neighborhood Exchange





	Hungry, Hungry Peter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [joyful_soul_collector](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyful_soul_collector/gifts).



> This fic is part of the Friendly Neighborhood Fic Exchange and is gifted to @joyful_soul_collector. I hope you enjoy!

Peter likes it when Thor resides at the Tower. First, he's _Thor_. Second, Peter enjoys his humor and ye-olde stories. But one of the things that he enjoys the most is the amount of food they have at meals. Steve and Bucky eat a lot, but Thor can out-eat them all.

Before the spider bite, Peter was your average teenage boy. Aunt May had used the term “wooden leg" to describe his eating habits. He could eat a whole 2ft-long hoagie plus in one sitting. Now, with his increased metabolism, he needs to eat more. May knows about this and makes sure to order enough food. But when he’s at the tower, he feels weird asking Tony to get more food. Tony does so much for the team already – he doesn’t need to make sure he orders an extra serving for someone. Harley complains all the time that everyone asks Tony for too much.

May is taking a vacation in Barbados with a friend, and Peter is spending the week at the Tower. It’s Father’s Day, and Tony suggested having a movie night. He, Peter, Harley, Morgan, Pepper, and Rhodey settle into the theater for a Disney movie binge. Peter knows Pepper is only there because Tony asked her to be present, and Rhodey is only there so he can spend time with his goddaughter. Peter doesn’t mind because he loves Disney movies. “Tonight is about fathers,” He tells them. “I asked FRIDAY to queue up some Disney movies that have good fathers.”

_Finding Nemo_ is first, _The Lion King_ , and then _A Goofy Movie_ are played sequentially. Peter gets popcorn and candy for everyone. He’s hungry, and he knows Tony won’t mind if he eats a bucket of popcorn by himself, but to draw attention away from himself, Peter fills a large bucket for each of them.

“Woah! This is a lot of popcorn!” Rhodey exclaims. “I’m not gonna eat this all. Do you wanna share, Morgan?” Pepper and Tony end up sharing a bucket, which leaves Harley and Peter each to their own.

Peter eats a bucket and a half of popcorn under the guise that he didn’t want it to go to waste, but he senses Harley watching him. It’s making him uncomfortable.

Thankfully, Harley doesn’t say anything to him, but Peter doesn’t want to get on his bad side. He knows what “Team Cap” went through when they returned to the tower. Coercing FRIDAY to help, Harley rained hell down on them via a series of pranks and inconveniences until Tony had heard enough complaints and forced him to stop. Even though everyone had kissed and made up, most of the pardoned Avengers steer clear of Harley. The others watch him with begrudged admiration. Peter wishes everyone would treat him like Harley, but the older boy disagrees. “Nah, they all love you, and they would do anything for you. Not me though. Most of them hate me but are too afraid to do anything about it.”

Peter walks down to breakfast the next morning to find Thor manning the stove. He perks up, knowing a big breakfast awaits them. Thor always cooks tons of food, and half of the Avengers don’t even eat breakfast. “Peter!” Thor exclaims. “It is good to see you. I was just about to make an omelet. How many eggs would you like?”

“Hi Thor! I’ll take five or six eggs if there’s enough.” Peter walks over to stand beside Thor.

The god moves over to make more room for Peter. “You know Tony always keeps the food well-stocked. I’ll make you seven. Would you like the works as well? I have brought some of that bacon you like so much.”

Peter wraps an arm – as far as he can – around Thor’s back for a quick side hug, then goes to the table to wait for his breakfast. Two minutes later, Harley saunters in. “Morning Thor. Whatcha making today?”

“Peter Parker omelets,” Thor announces proudly. “Peter showed me how to make them last time. Here, you cook the bacon, then potatoes. You add cheese and pour the egg over top. Add more cheese when the egg is cooked, and you have an omelet. It was quite good.”

“Sounds good. Can I have one with three eggs?”

Peter is finished eating his breakfast when Tony bustles in. “Oh, hey Thor. What time did you get in?”

“Early this morning,” Thor replies. “I told you I could be quiet if necessary. Want a Peter omelet?”

Tony is making coffee and glances up. “What? Oh no, not today. I’ve got a board meeting that I am attending to appease my darling wife. Hey Pete, want to stop by in, say, three hours? I have a job for you.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Stark! I’ll be there.” Peter grins. He loves working at SI with Tony.

Harley swipes his milk glass to take a swig and smirks when Peter notices twenty seconds later. “You know you can just call him Tony.”

“I did – had been.” Peter blushes. “But then I called him ‘dad,’ and now I’ve reverted.”

Harley simply smiles and exits the kitchen.

++++++

  
Three hours later, Peter and Harley are working with Tony on a new type of solar panel when his stomach starts to growl. “Hungry?” Tony asks. “I can order some food. What sounds good?”

“I’m ok. Whatever you want, I can eat.”

Tony orders three combo meals of Pad Thai, and Peter still feels famished afterwards, but he keeps quiet. They finish the panel two hours later, and Pepper and Happy meet them to go home.

Thor is not around for team dinner, and as Steve and Bucky are both present, Peter doesn’t get as much food as he would like. After a Mario Kart tournament (which Bucky wins after narrowly beating Natasha on Rainbow Road), Peter reads Morgan a bedtime story and tucks her in so that Tony and Pepper have an hour to themselves. “Good night Princess Morgan. Sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

“I will bite them back!” She crows, giggling.

He grins. “They’ll be too afraid to come out now.” Peter loves Morgan. She’s like his little sister, and he will do everything he can to keep her safe. She clutches her stuffed spider to her chest and closes her eyes. Peter sits with her for a few minutes, and his stomach rumbles.

Morgan’s eyes pop open, and she asks, “Hungwy?”

“Just a little. I’ll be ok.” He pats her hand. “You need to go to sleep.”  
  
  
“If you’re hungwy, we can get juice pops,” Tony’s daughter bargains.

Peter smirks. This little child is the daughter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts – of course she will try to cut a deal. She’s going to be unstoppable when she takes over. “Now, missy. I am not your dad. You may have me wrapped around your finger, but I don’t want to face your mom’s wrath when she finds you still awake with a sugar high. If Uncle Rhodey is afraid of that, then you can bet your boots that Peter is, too.”

Morgan seems to consider that for a moment, and she nods. “Ok, I sleep, but juice pops tomorrow.”

“Juice pops tomorrow sounds good. Pinkie promise.” The pinkie promise seems to satisfy the five-year-old, and she promptly closes her eyes. Peter turns out her light and turns on the fake arc reactor nightlight.

He is almost out the door when he hears her whisper, “I love you one thousand-two hundred-and twenty-six.”

“I love you one thousand-two hundred-and twenty-six, too.” He whispers back and closes the door behind him.

Peter heads out on patrol for an hour or so. Usually, this is the time he picks up some extra food, but he has no cash. He catches a few car thieves and saves a man from getting hit by a speeding car. Exhausted, he stops on a roof to catch his breath.

Tony finds him there ten minutes later. “Hey kid, you ok?”

“Yea, yea… I’m… fine. Just enjoying the view from here,” Peter gestures to the New York skyline.

“It is beautiful,” Tony’s modulated voice agrees. “Want a ride home?”

“That would be great. Thank you, Mr.… I mean, Tony.”

Iron Man picks up Spiderman and flies him to the roof of Stark Tower. They sit there watching the city lights. “Hey, I want to say thank you for putting Morgs to bed. Pep and I haven’t had a whole lot of alone time recently.”  
  
  
“Hey, it’s no problem. I love her.”

“And she loves you, too. She always asks when you’ll be coming to stay for a while. I keep trying to get May to move in, but she wants you to have a safe place elsewhere as well. I commend her for that. How have you been? We haven’t had a talk in a while.”

“I – I’ve been good. School’s been fine. I’m happy. How are you?”

“So-so. I’ve been sleeping better. Morgan has been a blessing, as have you and Harley. By the way, Pete, when you called me ‘Dad,’ I reacted the way I did because I wasn’t expecting it. I want you to know that you are like a son to me, and if you want to call me dad, I am perfectly fine with it.” Tony places a gauntleted hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“Thanks. I – I’ll keep that in mind.” Peter acknowledges. “So… never mind.”

“You sure? Nothing I can help you with?” Tony asks.

Peter shakes his head. “Nah, it’s… nothing.”

“Ok, I’m going to head in. You should probably come in soon as well.” Tony stands. “Good night kid.”

++++++

The week goes by, and Peter just can’t seem to eat enough. No matter how much he eats, he has to make sure his stomach doesn’t growl at inopportune moments. And he hates how he gets so tired after a night on patrol.

Friday morning finds him waking up the sound of the Avengers alarm. The threat is low-risk – large robot geese roaming the city streets and attacking civilians. Peter joins the fight, but due to his lack of energy, tires quickly. He crouches down behind an overturned car, trying to catch his breath, when a large goose starts beating his head with a metal wing. He quickly passes out… and wakes in a bed in the hospital wing.

Harley is sitting on the chair, watching him. He’s always watching. In his head, Peter asks, “What do you want?” but it comes out as “Wha wan?”

“You know, now is probably not the best time to lecture you, but you know what? You’re stuck here for the moment so I’m going to,” Harley leans forward in his seat. “Why aren’t you eating enough? Are you starving yourself?”

Peter’s eyes widen. _Is **that** why Harles’ has been watching me so closely?_ “NO!”

“That doesn’t seem suspicious at all,” The older boy scoffs. “I’m sorry. I should be showing more tact. What’s going on, Peter?”

“Can’ talk. Paper.” Peter manages out. His head is pounding, and he just feels weak.

Harley swipes a holo-keyboard over to him, but says, “If you’re too tired, we can talk later. I just am concerned for you.”

_Not starving self. Just need more food, but don’t want to burden T. He’s got enuf on his plate._ Peter types.

“Peter,” Harley’s voice grows soft. “When I said those things, I meant the team getting on his case about upgrading armor and weapons. They ask for the tiniest upgrades that take hours to complete when their stuff is better than what they would have been getting from SHIELD. Tony has a wife and kids now, and he doesn’t need to spend time in his lab for things that don’t need to be done. Now, you, _you_ need food to survive. You need way more food than Tony or I do because you have the increased metabolism. All Tony needs to do with that is order another serving of food. Three extra words to an order. It takes a maximum of 2 minutes. And you’re basically his son. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do for you. The only reason he’s not here right now is because Morgan has an ear infection.”

Harley gets interrupted by a knock on the door. Tony sticks his head in. “Hey, can I come in?”

“Yea. Are you staying?” Harley moves to get up.

“Stay there. I can pull up another chair,” Tony waves his hand at Harley. “Morgan’s finally sleeping, and the pain seems to be gone. Rhodey’s sitting in with her so I could come see you. How are you feeling, Peter?”  
  


_So-so._ He types out.

“Sorry I couldn’t be here sooner. Morgs had an ear infection, and Pepper’s in Japan. Harles offered to stay here with you so I could be with Morgan,” Tony explains, and Peter nods. “By the way kid, I’m also sorry that I didn’t notice you hadn’t been getting enough to eat. You’d think with a tower full of geniuses and super spies that someone would notice, but we didn’t. We’re going to order a lot more food from here out, and never be afraid to ask for more. They don’t call me a billionaire for nothing.” Tony pats the bed by Peter’s arm. “I love you, kid. I’d do anything for you.”

A tear slips down Peter’s cheek. “I love you, too, Dad.”


End file.
